Tag: Quick Fix

Article: Target Fixes

In the digital darkroom, it’s important to think and work selectively, rather than thinking and working globally.

Article: Blur It!

I don’t know about you, but when I look at a photograph on my monitor, I sometimes wish I had used a different shutter speed (to freeze or blur action) or a different aperture (for more or less depth of field).

Article: Photographic Time Shifting

I recently was watching a nature show on television and marveled at some of the nighttime images of jaguars.

Article: Expand Your Range

Look, ma! No HDR (high-dynamic-range) program or HDR plug-in! That’s right, HDR fans.

Article: Seeing The Big Picture

Panoramas usually are associated with sweeping landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes.

Article: HDR To The Rescue

I guess I could have entitled this column, “Ricky’s Believe It or Not!” but “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” already has the corner on fascinating and intriguing stories—and has had that corner since I used to read the column of the same name in the Sunday...

Article: From Flat To Fab

This is a bad news/good news story—one with a happy ending. This past November, I had the opportunity to travel to the bottom of the world to photograph emperor penguins. It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. I planned this trip to Antarctica f...

Article: Quality Of Light

You may not believe it at first, but all the photographs in this issue of PCPhoto have something in common. That something in common is, of course, light.

Article: Add A Creative Touch To Your Pictures

We all strive for pictures that look unique, artistic and creative. That goes for when they're framed and hung on a wall, when they're posted on the web, and maybe even when they're published in a book or magazine article. One creative idea is to...

Article: Adventures In Aperture

I made this image during my trip to Carnevale in Venice, Italy, this year. Sure, the model is terrific, and the location, an 800-year-old palace, is fantastic. From a technical standpoint, the image is super-sharp, the lighting is flattering and...

Article: Favorite Plug-Ins

Photoshop and...

Article: Digital Start To Finish

I usually devote this column to...

Article: Lightroom Hearts Photoshop

Check out the opening...

Article: Simulating In-Camera Effects

Article: Saving A Backlit Shot

One of the most challenging situations for a...

Article: Letting Your Image Take Off

The opening image for this column was inspired by something that I try to do all the time in real life, with my photography and in the digital darkroom: have fun! The image looks as though my son and I are soaring at top speed high above beautiful...

Article: Hot Ice And Snow

This column is about how to use the digital darkroom to transform a straight-out-of-the-camera shot into the image you envisioned when you pressed the shutter-release button. First, I'll share some techniques for working in a high-contrast...

Article: The Details

One of the differences between a good photograph and a great one is how we handle the details. Check out this image of a beautiful Kuna woman who I photographed at the San Blas Hotel in the San Blas Islands, an archipelago of 365 islands that lies...

Article: Fire In The Sky

We all love watching sunsets, looking at pictures of sunsets and, of course, photographing sunsets! The warm colors—deep shades of red, orange and yellow—evoke feelings of peace and tranquility and a sense of awe at nature's wonders.

Article: Digital Image Enhancement With Adobe Camera Raw

Adobe Camera Raw rocks! RAW shooters know that. But get this-the new version of Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS3 isn't only for RAW shooters and wannabe RAW shooters who may have been intimidated by RAW image processing. This image enhancement tool...

Article: With The End Result In Mind

Thanks to digital, I have total control over my images—and so do you. If I couldn't see the effect of exposure settings on the LCD and make adjustments on the spot, I'd have a lower percentage of keepers. What's more, I couldn't make...

Article: Fast Basic Fixes

Readers of PCPhoto know that for my professional work, I depend on Photoshop CS2 for my image enhancements. For pros like me, it's the coolest program around. However, Photoshop Elements, CS2's little brother so to speak, offers many...

Article: Fine-Art Conversion

Recently, my good friend Karen Ippolito e-mailed me a fun self-portrait. Karen is a good photographer and a talented artist who has taken many creative photographs with her Canon EOS 5D. However, for this self-portrait, she used a tiny point-and-shoot...

Article: Clean Up The Background

In my workshops, I used to tell students that the background was almost as important as the main subject. Today, I tell them that it's just as important as the main subject and that it can make or break a photograph. When we're traveling, we don't...

Article: Posterize An Image

Technically, the Posterize adjustment in Photoshop is designed to analyze the pixel colors of a selected area of an image and reduce the number of colors—while maintaining the "look" of the original image. Creatively, you can apply this adjustment to...

Article: Instant Classic

Transforming an old photograph into one that looks as though it was taken with one of today's top-of-the-line digital SLRs is relatively easy in Adobe Photoshop CS2 and other image-editing programs. You'll find many retouching and restoration articles...

Article: Snapshot To Postcard In Five Minutes

Have you ever taken a seascape or landscape picture from inside a moving plane, boat or car, where the view of the horizon line was tilted? Have you ever had to shoot fast to get off a shot without making any exposure adjustments, resulting in an...

Article: Seaside Digital Effects

With winter in full swing, I thought we'd work with a tropical photo—remember, it's summer for our friends in the southern hemisphere. Summer is obviously a great time for photography, and before we know it, the warm days will be back again. Winter i...